


By Design

by LizRambler



Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Silly, Tropes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-14
Updated: 2020-09-14
Packaged: 2021-03-06 22:08:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,644
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26462431
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LizRambler/pseuds/LizRambler
Summary: The Doctor takes Rose Tyler to a Kissing Festival (and thinks he isn't taking her there to get a kiss.) This is a silly nonsense fic. No bad things happen.
Relationships: Tenth Doctor/Rose Tyler
Comments: 8
Kudos: 60





	By Design

The Doctor and Rose slipped through the crowd, desperately trying to blend in. Rose’s palm was hot in his, sweaty, and getting harder to keep a tight grip. He flexed his fingers to get a better grip on her. He wasn’t about to let her go. She wasn’t complaining about the heat or the people chasing them. Each time he turned to check on her she grinned. The Doctor felt his hearts flutter embarrassingly at each smile. Today had been engineered by him to be perfect. Perfect planet: Glissereau home of fun festivals, cakes that tasted a lot like spicy hot cheesecakes, inhabitants that were not prudes so he wouldn’t have to worry about holding Rose’s hand or leaning to close to her, and most importantly: A Kissing Festival. No way would they get flagged for being tactile on a planet that had something as charming as a kissing festival.

“A kissing festival? You’re kidding,” Rose muttered as he dragged the pink duvet down off of her. He’d learned from experience that Rose Tyler, was not a morning person. The quick application of shock as in the cold resulting in having a blanket removed from one’s cocooned personage resulted in Rose getting out of the bed ten and a half minutes faster with only a twenty percent chance of her hitting him with whatever was at hand. Just to be on the safe side, he had started sneaking in an hour before any wake-up attempts to remove projectiles from the immediate vicinity of Rose Tyler’s bed. This morning, she grumbled but seemed intrigued. Good. Intrigued was not cranky. Her eyes narrowed. “You go to this kissing festival a lot?”

“Nope. Never been.” Why go to a kissing festival when you aren’t interested in kissing anyone? Not that the Doctor would ever act on that interest…again. Well, probably wouldn’t act on it again. He had kissed rose in Rome. He had also kissed Rose to take the vortex out of her--excused because of it being to save her life and not an incredibly romantic act of a dying Timelord who was already arse over tea kettle for a certain human girl. She had even kissed him...while possessed so that one one hundred percent did not count even if...nope. Did not count. “Nope. Not ever. Want to go? The people are friendly bipeds. Look a bit like us only their eyes glow in the dark. Excellent night visions the Glissereauns.”

Rose arched a brow. “And why do you want to go?” 

“Because,” he squeaked, “never been. Didn’t you hear me? Just then. Or do you need tea before your brain can make new memories?”

Rose rolled her eyes and the Doctor congratulated himself on his excellent sidestep of the question.

“And they have spicy cakes…” he added.

Rose’s eyes twinkled. “There it is! You have such a sweet tooth this time around.”

Good, good, she was not focusing on the kissing aspect of the festival which they were most definitely not participating. “Yes, well, we can’t all live on chips. Rose,” he whined, “you’re not hopping up and getting dressed. There’s a beach as well. Pink sands… Pinker ocean… fruity drinks with umbrellas.” He didn’t really need to add inducements. Rose was climbing out of the bed. The Doctor gallantly, offered her a hand so she wouldn’t slip on yesterday’s jeans, pants, and discarded bra. Blimey, he should get her a laundry basket before he met his death at the hands of a pair of patterned knickers… by tripping. Not by… Right, just the tripping then.

“Tea,” she was saying. “You go make a cuppa for me while I get dressed. What do I wear to get kissed?”

“What?! We’re not going for the kissing, Rose! We’re going for cakes and a nice beach day and maybe a few umbrella drinks. Wear something for warm weather,” he squeaked.

“You may not be kissing but what if someone wants to kiss me?” Rose teased. He hoped she was teasing. Her tone indicated teasing… But Rose was smart, funny, which made her approachable, accessible to pretty boys. Hm, he hadn’t thought that part through.

“No, no, no, we’re having a day off together! No wandering off. No kissing pretty boys.” He paused. That sounded a bit… “I mean you can do what you want.” The Doctor tugged on his ear considering having the Tardis take them to an empty planet instead... Rose wouldn’t blink at a change in venue. The Tardis had a habit of landing wherever she wanted. But... “I just thought it would be fun to spend the day together.”

“We spend every day together,” she remarked. Something in his expression must have tipped her off. Rose ran a hand down his arm. “I was kidding. I’m not about to snog a stranger when I could be eating cakes on a pink beach with you, am I? Tea?”

“Yes, yes, tea. So, I’ll just go...so you can…” The Doctor fled the room, suavely.

The crowd thickened. The constabulary was going to have a hard time finding them in the midst of Swirling, dancing, kissing couples. Rose whispered, “Doctor, I don’t see them behind us.”

The Doctor glanced over his shoulder. “I don’t either. Let’s move farther in. I don’t fancy spending the night in the jail when we haven’t even gotten our hands on those spicy cakes yet. They only offer them after the official kissing ends. After that, there are speeches and toasts and fireworks go boom…”

“And we sneak away while everyone is ‘ooohing’ and ‘aahing’ at the show!” Rose giggled. She drifted up next to him, pressing in close to his side. “We should blend in,” she explained as she looped his arm around her bare shoulders. Maybe he shouldn’t have let her drink so many umbrella adorned drinks. Her skin was flushed, with a light sheen of sweat in the balmy tropical evening.

Rose drank her tea in the console room as he piloted like the expert he was. He sent a mental question to the Tardis to see if she were in the mood to take him where he wanted to go instead of where he needed to go. The Tardis was amused and amenable as long as he left the mallet hanging. The Doctor flipped a few levers that weren’t connected to anything anymore just to look cool. Rose grinned. He beamed.

Taking her hand, he dragged out of the Tardis onto the balmy streets with Rose giggling. Rainbow bunting dripped from buildings that resembled confections more than architecture. Rose pulled him to a stop in front of a pink frothy one. “It looks like a milkshake.”

“Yes.” he agreed.

“But it’s a building.”

“It is. Brilliant, yeah?”

“Yeah,” she echoed, eyes bright. “So history lesson?”

“Oh, not much history here. These people were so clever about everything. About three centuries ago, they had the last world war. After that, they say down and decided that’s enough of that. All wars were canceled in favor of games…”

“What? Like they solve disputes with Parcheesi?” Rose asked as he walked her down gleaming white streets to the shore.

He hummed in agreement, “And chess, or dodge ball or swimming, feats of strength, the draw of a card, you name it and they’ve used it to solve a major issue. Everyone agrees to abide by the winner.” He swung their joined hands. “And when they sealed the deal… They sealed it with a kiss.”

“Seriously?” Rose asked, laughing, “That wow, that is brilliant! So no wars ever. What about crime?”

“Oh,” he puffed out a breath, “petty stuff. They never developed capitalism here. More of a barter/share society. So less reason to get it in the neck. They do have strict laws about cheating at games.”

“Obviously,” Rose said, “imagine going to jail because you stole a turn or oh! Or pulled an extra card from the community chest!” Rose half skipped beside him. 

“Or slipped a few aces up your sleeve,” he added to her delight. “C’mon, it’s in bad taste to talk about cheating here. Let’s get a drink. Want to walk on the sand?”

“Pink sand? Just you try and keep me off it!”

His hearts sped up. Happy, laughing Rose in the sun, he thought with a deep urge to kiss the hand he was currently swinging with abandon. Or maybe the crown of her head where the rich scent of her and her lovely fruity shampoo was richest. Or oh, her lips which she’d painted red with a delicious smelling lip stain. he was right, it had a hint of real fruit juice in the wax. He looked away from her to lessen the temptation. They weren’t here for the kissing, he reminded himself.

“Why did I have to go and mention Houdini here of all places?” The Doctor asked as Rose was nearly pulled into a kiss by a tall woman with glowing blue eyes. Rose sidestepped her with a wink. The kissing crowd was too enthusiastic. He dodged his own would-be suiter with Rose’s help. The woman frowned before kissing another tall bloke. He scratched at his sideburns, still keeping an eye out for cops. “I told you about the,” he lowered his voice, “then I go and mention a magician here of all places.”

“My fault,” Rose said, “I had three of the drink things and that bloke with the orange eyes was talking about his kinks… Told him how you taught me how to get out of handcuffs which you learned from…”

“Houdini! Oh,” he drawled. “Right. Still, it was a stupid thing to do before we get to the cakes.” People were pressing in tighter and tighter. Off in the distance, a speech had begun. “Well, we’ll be able to make a break for it soon enough.”

“With cakes,” Rose said.

“With cakes,” he agreed with a determined air.

He had only been gone a minute! A tall handsome man with bronze skin and orange eyes was all over Rose. Well, no he was next to Rose but he wanted to be all over her. The Doctor recognized that pretty boy look in his eyes. Rose was laughing and swatting at the guy playfully. Her third drink was empty, the tiny umbrella having migrated to her hair with the other two. The Doctor had four tucked into his own hair since Rose had thought it funny. She spotted him. Rose’s face lit up. His hearts stuttered. “Doctor! Over here. Tell Erim…”

“Andrim,” the pretty boy corrected.

“Tell Anderim here how you taught me how to get out of handcuffs…” She left Andrim’s side to link arms with him. The Doctor may or may not have stood up straighter. Rose’s grip was tighter and she was transferring weight to him in a way that suggester her balance was compromised by the alcohol. The Doctor told him the story of a very wet evening he spent with Houdini. Rose laughed at all the right parts. He handed her the drink he had gotten her. She hadn’t liked the berry in the last one so he had swapped her drink for his. Getting into his story, he handed her both drinks and pulled a deck of cards from his pocket to show him a great magic trick.

The Doctor noticed them before Rose did. The police on this planet tended to wear a lot of blue but what they didn’t know was that the dyes they used for blue on Glissereau showed to his superior vision had spots of pink. Rose was looking left in the police free zone. The police turned toward them. In about four point two seconds they were going to see them if he didn’t do something. Time slowed down as his brain analyzed the four hundred and thirty-two different scenarios that could play out. The clock tolled the kissing hour and the Doctor spun Rose, dipped her as low as possible to take them out of the cops’ eye line. Rose’s arms scrambled to grip his shoulders and maintain balance, not that she needed to, he had her. Rose’s eyes were wide. He kissed her. 

“He cheats at cards!!!” Andrim screamed, and since his people had double the lung capacity of a human, it was loud. 

Rose and the Doctor looked at each other. “Oops?” he said.

They ran.

Lips pressed together chastely, the Doctor held her there, keeping one eye on the cops. When they passed by, his mind short-circuited. He was kissing Rose again! On a kissing planet! Brilliant! And judging by the way she was returning the kiss, the happy little noise she had just made and how her hands had migrated into his hair to ruffle his hair, she wasn’t too upset about it. He gripped her tighter, almost dropping her in shock when Rose deepened the kiss. Tingles from his hair follicles met up with tingles from his lips and raced down his spine lighting up every pleasure center he had with pleasant warmth and tingling. 

The Doctor’s respiratory bypass kicked in reminding him he hadn’t gotten air in a bit so, he pulled back to let her breathe. They grinned at one another. “There were cops and...hiding,” he offered before squeaking, “Cake?”

Rose nodded, breathless still. Halfway to the stall handing out cake, Rose shoved him up against a wall, lips mashed together. The Doctor sank into it. Tongues made their way into the kissing. The Doctor thought that was a brilliant, hot, wet development. He slipped his hands around her waist allowing her to press him harder against the scratchy brick wall of a baby blue wall. Somehow even pressed as tightly as he was against the wall, Rose managed to squeeze her hands between the wall and his slim self to grip his bum. She let go. Dazed, he let the wall hold him up. “Wha-?”

Rose with kiss swollen lips, bright cheeks, and dazed eyes shrugged. “Thought I saw a cop.”

“Oh, right.”

“So I…” she gestured between them.

“Quite right,” he agreed. 

“Sorry…” she added even though she wasn’t sorry. She looked a bit smug.

The Doctor knew he could let her play this off. Let her let him play this off but who was he kidding? He’d taken her to a kissing festival! He wanted to kiss her. He still wanted to kiss her. Kissing her had been brilliant. The inside of her mouth was sweet with berry drinks and natural wonderful Rose-ness. Her hot human body pressed up against him had been… He shook his head.

“Oh, don’t be sorry. You saved us from a night in jail,” he said in an approximation of breeziness. 

“You saved us first,” she argued, reaching out to touch his chest. His hearts were still racing. She left her hand there. He placed one of his over hers.

“Me? I got us into this mess.” The Doctor caught her hand and led her to the stalls.

“I was talking to that rat,” Rose growled. “Calling the cops on someone for a card trick?”

The tension between them dissipated as they walked through the packed crowd. He shrugged. “Maye he wanted to get me out of the way. Save you from the corrupting influence of an old alien cheater…” He frowned. “I…”

“Nah,” Rose waved that off, “I cheat at cards all the time. And I taught you that card trick at Mum’s birthday party…”

She had! The Doctor laughed. “Oh, you are a minx.”

“How about we get some cake and see how many cops we pass on the way back to the Tardis?” Rose asked, arching a brow challenging him.

“Bet there are dozens,” he remarked giving her a sidelong glance.

She rolled her eyes. But she didn’t pull away. She tugged him closer.

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this for a trope thing that I signed up for and forgot about. So, it was supposed to be posted yesterday. In the middle of writing, my laptop ran out of battery and my charger's being squirrely. I did manage to get it written even though I owe you parts in several stories. Enjoy this story as a snack break.


End file.
